MINNEAPOLIS—Responding to an invasion of their neighborhoods by thousands of ICE agents, a powerful coalition of labor, community, and faith organizations has mobilized for a statewide shutdown in Minnesota this Friday, January 23. Their main demand is that ICE must be completely removed from their neighborhoods, their workplaces, and their state.
The unified and furious response has been sparked by an occupation exacerbated by the shooting of 37-year-old mother and poet Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.
A wave of more than 3,000 heavily armed, masked federal agents has descended on the Twin Cities and communities across Minnesota, terrorizing working people and residents regardless of immigration status. Reports say that U.S. soldiers are also “standing by” waiting for orders to intervene under the orders of President Donald Trump.
The call for the statewide shutdown is broad, linking traditional trade union action with the fight against police and federal repression. Many residents say that the assault in Minneapolis is just another spearhead of a broader conspiracy to impose a fascist dictatorship.
This Friday’s action will include a “Truth and Freedom” march, building upon the massive turnout of at least 10,000 people who marched in South Minneapolis on January 10, demanding ICE leave Minnesota. That demonstration was organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC).
In the days leading up to Friday’s action, the ICE Out of Minnesota coalition has targeted, with daily demonstrations, corporations bankrolling ICE and the Trump regime. Protests took place Monday at Target, Tuesday at Home Depot, Wednesday at Enterprise, Thursday at Hilton, and Friday at Delta Airlines. The labor-community grouping May Day Strong is also helping to organize national solidarity actions with Minnesota across the country, including what they say will be a large labor-led demonstration in New York City.
The Truth and Freedom march is sponsored by an array of organizations, from trade unions to faith groups, community organizations like Black Lives Matter and Indivisible, peace groups like Veterans for Peace and Jewish Voice for Peace, and a range of political organizations, including the Communist Party USA and the Democratic Socialists of America.
The United Auto Workers, which represents hundreds of workers in Minnesota, released a statement in solidarity with the statewide shutdown. “It is the working class that makes society run, and it is the working class that can shut it down if need be. On January 23rd, working class people will demonstrate that power in Minnesota, and the UAW has their back,” the union said.
A growing interfaith coalition of clergy will stand alongside working families, immigrants, and students for the action on Friday. As community leaders, “we are bearing witness to the daily constitutional and human rights violations resulting from Department of Homeland Security operations,” the clergy said in a statement Monday.
What’s key is that the labor movement is mobilizing in large numbers and across various industries, which now include the Minnesota AFL-CIO. National union leaders are also planning to attend Friday’s demonstration, sources told People’s World.
“When your coworkers aren’t safe, nobody is safe,” said Feben Ghilagaber, a server at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport and a steward for UNITE HERE Local 17. “This country is run by workers,” she said, explaining why labor is stepping up and has the power to fundamentally change society.
“We are not going to shop. We are not going to work. We are not going to school on Friday, January 23. For some people, they call that a strike,” said JaNaé Bates Imari of Camphor Memorial United Methodist Church at the initial press conference last week. “For many of us, this is our right to refusal until something changes.”
ATU Local 1005 President David Stiggers called ICE’s repression “a throwback to the darkest times of human history, 1940s Germany. Working people cannot stand aside while our neighbors are terrorized and our families are fractured,” he stated.
Marcia Howard, President of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators (AFT Local 59), declared that “Labor is going to show the entire state and the entire nation how we move in Minnesota…these are our streets, and we’re taking them back one block at a time.”
The list of endorsing unions is extensive and growing, including SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17, the St. Paul Federation of Educators Local 28, Minneapolis Federation of Educators (AFT Local 59), IATSE Local 13, Graduate Labor Union, United Electrical Workers Local 1105 at the University of Minnesota, ATU Local 1005, the Committee of Interns and Residents (SEIU), OPEIU Local 12, CWA Local 7250, Minnesota Nurses Association, Teamsters Local 320, Northern Plains United Labor Council, Northern Valley Labor Council, the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, and the Minnesota AFL-CIO.
“It’s time for every single Minnesotan who loves this state and the notion of truth and freedom to raise their voices and deepen their solidarity for our neighbors and co-workers living under this federal occupation,” said Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, president of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation.
CWA Local 7250 President Kieran Knutson connected the fight to a longer history of resisting state violence, noting the police murders of Jamar Clark and Philando Castile fueled networks now activated against Trump’s attacks on immigrants, reported Labor Notes.
On labor’s participation in the coalition, he said that unions “fight like hell on all issues of wages, benefits, and discipline,” he said. “And that gives us some credibility to talk about things more broadly.”
Natasha Dockter of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators detailed how ICE has created an unsafe environment for teachers, who now “drive to work through tear gas, pivot to provide online instruction, and work in partnership and solidarity with the community to provide critical resources such as food to families.”
Greg Nammacher, President of SEIU Local 26, pledged that “Unions will do everything in our power to protect the rights of all workers—union members or not—to express their right to free speech and free assembly on that day.” He revealed ICE has already detained over 20 union members.
What’s happening in the Twin Cities is a flashpoint moment for the entire country. The people of Minnesota are showing the entire country that when the labor movement and the community unite, they possess the power to halt the machinery of repression and reclaim their streets. This Friday, all eyes will be on Minnesota.
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